Charles Hugh Hodges Nugent
Colonel Charles Hugh Hodges Nugent (1868-1924)
1925 Obituary [1]
COLONEL CHARLES HUGH HODGES NUGENT, C.I.E., Colonel Commandant, R.E., was born in Bermuda on 11th December 1868, and was educated at Cheltenham College.
On completing his school course he entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, with subsequent transference to the School of Military Engineering, Chatham, where he spent the years 1888-90, becoming the "Fowke" medallist.
On passing out, he served some time as an apprentice in the works of Sir W. Armstrong, Mitchell and Co., Elswick, before taking up his military duties as an officer in the Royal Engineers.
He was employed as Officer in Charge of Machinery at Portsmouth during 1893-94, in Ceylon 1894-95, in Hong Kong 1896-99, and in the Thames district 1899-1905. During this last-mentioned period he was Inspector of Iron Structures and Chief Mechanical Engineer to the War Office, and was responsible for much of the equipment for the Imperial Military Railways in South Africa.
As an original member of the War Office Committee on Mechanical Transport, he had wide experience in matters connected with self-propelled vehicles, heavy and light, and he took special interest in the problems presented by the use of heavy oils for purposes of transport. His War service took him to many parts of the world, and his linguistic capacities and knowledge of Eastern and other languages were of a high order.
From 1911 to 1919 he was Inspector of Machinery at Army Headquarters, India, at Simla , and during part of that period his activities included the formation and organization of mechanical transport and armoured-car units, etc., in India, Mesopotamia, Aden, and West Africa. His War service included motor transport reconnaissance in Seistan, visits to several theatres of operations, and participation in the third Afghan War in 1919.
His death occurred on 2nd December 1924, at Cheena Hall, Naina Tal, U.P., India, at the age of fifty-six.
He became a Member of this Institution in 1905.